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omni-id.com High Performance Passive RFID Tags Track your high value assets with unprecedented accuracy. Best Practices Guide: RFID Implementation, Testing & Deployment Lessons for Success from Real-World Implementations
Best Practice Guide - RFID Implementation, testing and deployment omni-id.com Executive Summary RFID Systems have significantly improved over the past several years, now achieving read rates close to 100% and fulfilling the vision of RFID experts. To implement a system that works this well, many factors must be taken into consideration and the correct choices made. This paper reviews some of the design factors involved in an RFID system implementation, such as selecting active vs. passive tags, choosing RFID tags, attaching RFID tags to assets, and performing application testing. For each design factor, pros and cons of the available options are discussed, as well as common pitfalls – and how to avoid them. To illustrate the various options and their uses, the paper includes a number of real-world examples drawn from Omni-ID’s extensive experience in implementing RFID systems. For anyone planning an RFID deployment, these invaluable lessons will guide you to success. 2
Best Practice Guide - RFID Implementation, testing and deployment omni-id.com Contents Introduction: Achieving 100% Read Rate 4 Implementing RFID Systems 4 Active vs. Passive Tags 5 Real World Lessons: Active Tags in a Data Center 6 Circular vs. Linear Antennas 6 Real World Lessons: Retail Store 7 Real World Lessons: Work-In-Process 7 Antenna / Reader Compatibility 7 Selecting RFIDTags 8 Read Range 8 Tag Size 8 Interference 8 Real World Lessons: Data Center 8 Attaching RFID Tags to Assets 9 Real World Lessons: Networking Equipment Company 9 Real World Lessons: Financial Institution 10 Tag Commissioning 10 Vendor Commissioning 10 In-House Commissioning 11 Application Testing 11 Real World Lessons: Supermarket Chain 11 Real World Lessons: Manufacturing Warehouse 12 New Applications for RFID 12 Real World Lessons: Survey Marker Company 13 Summary 13 RFID Deployment Checklist 14 Brought to You by Omni-Id 14 3
Best Practice Guide - RFID Implementation, testing and deployment omni-id.com Introduction: Achieving 100% Read Rate It was early 2009, and John Richards was testing the RFID inventory system he’d been working on for the past several years. John Richards manages the data centers for one of the country’s largest equipment providers. The data center where the RFID system was being tested was around 2000 square feet and contained over 7000 individual pieces of equipment. Clearly identifying and tracking each asset in the center was a tremendous challenge. John had a vision for how RFID could enable accurate asset tracking for the data center, but over several years he had tested numerous RFID equipment types and setups without achieving 100% read performance. Since the fall of 2008, John had been working with Andre Cote, Implementing RFID Systems the CTO of Omni-ID. John was testing several changes, including the use of Omni-ID’s Prox RFID tag, with the hopes of improving RFID systems have been available for years, but many who have system performance. His goal was to tag all assets in his data tried an RFID implementation have found it more difficult than center and achieve read rates of 99% to 100%, so that he could expected. As with most complex undertakings, up front education take inventory accurately and quickly. If he could prove the and planning increases the chance of success. success of this system, he planned to implement the process globally. Long term, he even hoped to use RFID to manage the This White Paper, brought to you by Omni-ID, manufacturer of product life cycle. balanced on-, off- and near-metal passive UHF RFID tags, is a guide to some of the factors to consider in planning an RFID The system operated with a roll cart containing an RFID reader implementation. An RFID implementation should always be done and antenna, which would be guided down the three-foot-wide with the assistance of an experienced system integrator, preferably aisles, reading inventory tags on both sides. The data center’s one with experience implementing in environments similar to your assets included items made of metal, plastic, or a combination own. While this guide doesn’t replace the assistance of a systems of the two, which had to be identified at a distance of about two integrator, it does present issues you’re likely encounter. It also feet. In the earliest tests, read rates were only 85%.Since then, shares real world success stories and pitfalls so that you can each piece of equipment in the system had been optimized. benefit from lessons learned and confidently plan for a successful In addition to the new RFID tags, new readers and antennas RFID implementation. designed for the process had been installed, and new data capture software was written. In the final round of testing, 99% to 100% read rates were achieved, thanks to the Omni-ID ProxTM tag and the new modifications to the reader systems. The team was elated with their success. During the debrief John turned to Andre. “That’s the first time,” he said with satisfaction, “that I have ever been able to do this.” The Water Tests 4
Best Practice Guide - RFID Implementation, testing and deployment omni-id.com Active vs. Passive Tags One of the first decisions to be made in designing an RFID There are also features of passive tags that are superior to active system is whether to use active or passive RFID tags. Both tags. The most significant is cost; the initial per-tag cost is much active and passive tags have developed significantly over the lower for passive tags. Passive tags also have a much longer past several years, and are capable of functioning in ways that lifespan, lasting indefinitely, while active tag batteries typically must didn’t work even a few years ago. Understanding how these be replaced within two-to-three years, adding both infrastructure technologies apply in the real world can help determine which and labor costs. The lower overall cost – both in installation and type of tag is best for your application. maintenance – is responsible for the popularity of passive tags today. Another important differentiation between passive and Because active tags have a battery in them, they have certain active tags is tag size. advantages over passive tags. Their signal is stronger, and they emit a signal without activation by an RFID Passive tags are generally smaller than active tags, and will therefore physically fit on a smaller surface area. As with active reader, so they can constantly “chirp” their identity. The tags, many new capabilities have been developed for passive tags additional power can overcome interference from surrounding in recent years. Most notably, passive tags are now able to work electromagnetic fields, which means that for use on metals, active on metals and liquids, and the memory storage capacity has been tags were the only option until a few years ago, when on-metal increased substantially to store pedigree data. passive tags were introduced. In recent years, active tags have been developed with improved functionality, enabling the tag to Because of the lower cost of a passive tag infrastructure, RFID capture and broadcast pedigree data -- time, temperature, or GPS system designers only use an active tag system when the “always- location -- in addition to a simple identity signal. on” capabilities justify the additional cost. Active Passive Signal strength Stronger Weaker Signal availability Always on Responds when read Size Larger Smaller Initial cost Higher Lower Maintenance Replace every 2–3 years Indefinite lifetime Environment Available for all environments Available for all environments 5
Best Practice Guide - RFID Implementation, testing and deployment omni-id.com Real World Lessons: Active Tags in a Data Center It can be difficult to quantify the additional benefits and costs of an active RFID implementation. As an example, let’s look at an active-tag RFID implementation in a data Best Practice #1 center. It’s the dream of many data center managers to be able to take inventory at the push For many companies, of a button, without leaving their chair – and that’s the appeal of an active-tag RFID system. implementing a passive RFID However, the managers at this data center found that the quantity and close proximity of the system gives them sufficient tagged assets created an environment where many tags, all “chirping” at once, interfered benefits of an automated with each other’s signals. With so many tags emitting similar frequencies in close proximity, inventory control system with less the opportunity for a tag to override another tag’s signal was very high. cost than an active RFID system would require. The data center manager addressed the issue by attenuating the tag signal frequency to only emit a signal once per minute. Even at this lower signal frequency, tags were “talking over” other tags; when the button was pushed and the inventory measured, some assets were not captured due to interference. Additional measures can be taken to address this issue. Assets can be compartmentalized with dividers to create smaller groups of signals, with different readers installed for each group. However these measures also add infrastructure cost, which ultimately reduces the ROI of the project. Circular vs. Linear Antennas Another key system design decision is the type of antenna you will use with your RFID reader. Although there are many antenna types, they can be grouped into two main categories, circular and linear, referring to the polarization of the signal emitted. The two antenna types have different advantages. A circular antenna reads from a much wider angle and a shorter distance than a linear antenna, and it can read tags in different orientations. A linear antenna can have better read performance and accuracy when the tag orientation is controllable. When designing your RFID system, it is important to identify the following design criteria: • How far will your reader be from the tags it is reading? • How well can you control the orientation and position of the tags? • How wide (or tall) is area over which you need to have read covered? 6
Best Practice Guide - RFID Implementation, testing and deployment omni-id.com Real World Lessons: Retail Store Let’s illustrate these decisions with a couple of real-world examples. In the first, an RFID system was implemented in a retail store to enclose and maintain security in the store’s Best Practice #2 electronics department. The readers and antenna were suspended from the ceiling, and Take the time to draw the needed to read tags within the entire area of the department, ceiling to floor. In this case, illumination window required antennas with a wide-angle read range were used to create a large zone of read coverage. to achieve your read rates Several antennas were required, and careful measurements were made to ensure that the and make sure you purchase antenna read distance would reach the floor, and that each cone of read coverage would hardware that can physically overlap sufficiently to create full coverage for the department. Once accomplish the goal. this full read coverage was established, any tags that moved out of the department would raise an alarm. By using circular antennas with the appropriate range, this system was successfully able to secure the electronics department. Real World Lessons: Work-In-Process In another, quite different example, a consumer products manufacturer wanted to implement RFID tagging on a high-speed Work-In-Process conveyor line. The manufacturer was adding Best Practice #3 RFID to its product as a result of a customer mandate; it was a high priority to enable RFID There is no one “best” type of without changing the existing production process. In addition, the manufacturer wanted to equipment; rather, choose the tag the pallets without incurring the additional cost of bringing the production line to a stop. equipment type that best fits your Products moved along the line at 600 ft/minute through a portal. Each pallet was tagged, purpose. programmed and verified as they moved through the portal. The RFID system was first implemented using circular antennas at the portal, and resulted in an 80% success rate for a single-read tag and verify operation. They then switched to a linear antenna, which had a stronger and more accurate signal, and found they could achieve read rates of 100% with the new antenna. The implementation using linear antennas was successful because the tags had consistent positioning on the pallet, and the pallets moved through the portal at the same orientation each time. Antenna / Reader Compatibility EPCglobal standard ISO 18006 was written to ensure that RFID chips and readers would be compatible, but that standard does not address antennas. Consequently, you can’t always rely on every reader working with a variety of antennas. Before buying a reader, you should ask what antennas it is compatible with, and if the choice is limited, be sure to investigate further so that you don’t invest in a reader that won’t accommodate your system design. Before buying a reader, you should ask what antennas it is compatible with, and if the choice is limited, be sure to investigate further so that you don’t invest in a reader that won’t accommodate your system design. 7
Best Practice Guide - RFID Implementation, testing and deployment omni-id.com Selected RFID Tags Read Range The primary consideration when selecting RFID tags is finding the optimal balance between size and read range. The right read range is based on the physical distance between your assets and the RFID reader. For example, a trucking operation will need to easily identify individual trucks from a distance, necessitating RFID tags with a long read range. In a retail outlet, or any environment where many assets are close together, a long read range can cause signal interference, making it difficult to take inventory on just one aisle or section. When assets are in close proximity, a shorter read range works best. Tag Size As a general rule of thumb, the larger the tag, the longer its read range. For many applications, tag size is not an issue, because there’s plenty of room on the asset to locate a tag. However, on smaller high-value assets such as electronic equipment, size can be a critical factor. The faceplate of many electronic devices is already competing for space between the various controls, and airflow ducts. Placing a tag over an airflow intake can cause the equipment to overheat and fail. Over the past several years, the RFID industry has developed new RFID tags with smaller footprints, such as the Omni-ID ProxTM. Interference After read range and size, the most important consideration in planning your implementation is the electromagnetic environment in which you’ll be installing your RFID system. All materials have dielectric properties, which always impacts the operating frequency. A standard dipole RFID tag takes on the dielectric properties of the material it’s on, which is why those tags have historically not worked when used on materials like metal or liquid. Today, tags are available that are optimized to work either on- or off- or near-metal. In planning your implementation, it’s important to choose a tag type that will work effectively on all of your assets. 8
Best Practice Guide - RFID Implementation, testing and deployment omni-id.com Real World Lessons: Data Center A data center decided to do an RFID implementation using an incremental approach, starting with tagging non-metal assets that presented the maximum process improvement for the Best Practice #4 lowest cost. Using inexpensive standard dipole tags, the data center manager tagged just Choosing one tag that works on those assets that were plastic, covering 30%-50% of the assets in the data center. After all of your assets can prevent implementing and testing the system, he found that it worked well and significantly improved confusion and decrease the cost their inventory accuracy. of the deployment. He then expanded the RFID implementation to include tagging metal assets which required him to select a second RFID tag that was optimized to work on metal. As new equipment was deployed, an employee with no RFID expertise was responsible for deciding which tag to place on each new asset. It turned out to be much more difficult than expected to determine whether an item was metal or plastic. Many plastics today are designed to imitate metal, with a rigid feel and a black, metallic appearance. As different brands of servers, blade servers, and routers were deployed, many of them were incorrectly tagged. The RFID system of choice was not working as planned, with many assets missed during inventory capture. The company tried to solve the problem by identifying and replacing the non-working tags. However, the cost of this effort quickly outweighed the cost savings of using the less expensive standard tags for the non-metal items. The problem was finally solved when the data center moved to a single tag with a reliable read range on- and off-metal. Using one RFID tag that worked reliably on all assets enabled the data center to achieve accurate inventory readings for 100% of their assets, something they had previously been unable to do. The problem was finally solved when the data center moved to a single tag with a reliable read range on- and off-metal. Using one RFID tag that worked reliably on all assets enabled the data center to achieve accurate inventory readings for 100% of their assets, something they had previously been unable to do. Attaching RFID Tags to Assets Designing an RFID system and selecting the proper equipment is the first step in any RFID implementation. Other decisions may be less obvious but are equally important to a successful implementation, such as how and where to attach the RFID tag to an asset. A secure attachment is required to accurately track and identify assets. Real World Lessons: Networking Equipment Company A major networking equipment company needed to tag a very small electronics board -- so small that even the smallest RFID tags were too big. The front of the board was all metal, and was grilled for air flow. Working with engineers at Omni-ID, the team decided to try using a polycarbonate tether to hang the tag through the grilling. After some testing, the Omni-ID team was able to provide the RFID tag with the tether attached. Additional testing proved that the tag could be read successfully from multiple directions, so hanging the tag backwards or sideways would not cause a problem. The new tether allowed the team to tag this asset as part of their RFID inventory tracking and management system, despite its size limitations. Omni-ID now offers the Tether as a standard product option for the Omni-ID ProxTM tag. 9
Best Practice Guide - RFID Implementation, testing and deployment omni-id.com Real World Lessons: Financial Institution In another example of the importance of correctly attaching tags to assets, the data center at a major financial institution deployed 10,000 RFID tags throughout the center, using a Best Practice #5 hired temporary labor force. Shortly thereafter, they found that many tags were not securely Creating a simple but clear attached, and a few had even fallen off the equipment and were found on the floor. They procedure for tag placement can initially suspected that the tag adhesive was to blame, but after further investigation they prevent problems later on. learned that the workers who had applied the tags were using poor processes. Given no guidance on tag placement, they had sometimes applied the tags to a curved surface or over ventilation holes. They had not checked that the surface was clean, and had applied no pressure when placing the tags. In some cases, they had even changed their minds after placing a tag, pulled it off, and replaced it in a different location. It was no surprise that these tags were not securely attached. For future deployments, the data center implemented simple guidelines for the deployment workforce. They showed the correct tag location for each class of asset, and required each tag to be placed on a clean, flat surface, applying pressure for five seconds when placing each tag. Tag Commissioning As with tag attachment, it is important to think through how to commission RFID tags – the process of programming each tag with a unique identification number. Commissioning tags after they are applied to the asset and stored in the inventory location is not recommended – it is too easy to mistakenly commission more than one asset when working in a crowded inventory environment. Tag commissioning should be done away from the final inventory location, either by the tag vendor or in-house. Vendor Commissioning When programming sequential numbers into RFID tags, consider having the RFID tag vendor ship the tags pre-programmed with the identification numbers. The ease of receiving tags already commissioned with the numbers you provided makes your deployment faster and eliminates the need for you to set up an in-house commissioning line. This method works well if you are tagging a row of inventory locations or giving assets numbers for the first time, because you will be following a sequential block of numbers. 10
Best Practice Guide - RFID Implementation, testing and deployment omni-id.com In-House Commissioning If, on the other hand, you have an asset base that already has identification numbers, and they are out of sequence, it may be easier to set up an in-house commissioning line. For example, a row of assets in a data center contains many items that have been bar-coded and subsequently moved around, resulting in a non-sequential group of identification numbers on any aisle. The easiest way to commission tags for these assets is to collect the data for the whole aisle and then program tags for that aisle in a separate commissioning area. A commissioning line can be set up with either an RFID reader, or with an RFID printer. Standard dipole tags can be commissioned through an RFID printer, but until recently, tags that worked on metal could not be commissioned that way because they are attached to a thick substrate. With the recent announcement of Omni-ID’s On Demand deployment solution, you can now commission Omni-ID ProxTM tags by printing on the chip element with an RFID printer, and then attach the chip to the substrate like a label. As with many other recent technological advances, this new offering makes it possible to implement RFID as easily in mixed-material environments as it has been previously in non-metal environments. Application Testing Once the RFID system is designed, ensure success by testing the system in the actual environment where it will be deployed. Because of the many sources of dielectric interference in the real world, the performance of an RFID system after implementation can vary significantly from lab test results. Many companies do initial testing in an anechoic chamber, which cancels out dielectric signals from other sources. Similarly, product specifications are typically listed at the most optimal performance levels, without interference. Testing how your system elements work together, within your work environment, can uncover potential issues that can be solved before full deployment. 11
Best Practice Guide - RFID Implementation, testing and deployment omni-id.com Real World Lessons: Supermarket Chain A major supermarket chain was deploying an RFID inventory system in their distribution centers. In these large warehouses, pallets were tagged, and each bin location in the warehouse racks was also tagged with a location identifier. Forklifts were equipped with RFID readers, so that as each pallet was put away, the pallet ID and the bin ID were captured. When an order came in for a pallet of a specific product, the automated inventory tracking significantly reduced the time required to locate and pick the pallet for shipping to the retail outlet. A glitch in deployment occurred when 10,000 tags were placed on warehouse racks without prior applications testing. The racks were made of steel I-beams, and the RFID tags were placed in the recess of the steel beam. After all the tags were placed, it was discovered that the I-beam created a wave guide effect. While it looked like a regular piece of steel, the shape of the I-beam manipulated the dielectric field around it, creating a dead spot for radio frequency and effectively blocking the reader from accessing and reading the tags. Best Practice #6 In this case, Omni-ID, the tag vendor, developed a solution for the customer which Always do applications testing in captured enough energy to read the tags. However, the entire issue could have been the actual environment where the avoided with applications testing, which would have revealed the issue in time to place the system will be implemented, to tags in a different location on the I-beams. identify and solve issues before a large-scale deployment. Real World Lessons: Manufacturing Warehouse A manufacturing warehouse set up an RFID inventory system that captured pallet IDs as they moved through two dock door portals on either side of the warehouse. The system was Best Practice #7 designed using a tag with eight feet of read range, and tested successfully in an anechoic RFID systems are affected by chamber. Once deployed, the portal on one side of the warehouse worked perfectly, electromagnetic forces around however on the other side, read performance was only successful at a distance of one or them, and don’t always work the two feet. The RFID tags were not the problem, as the same pallet was easily read by the same way in production as they working portal. Engineers began debugging the system, testing each piece of equipment. do in the test lab. Eventually they discovered that the warehouse had been equipped at one time with a wireless infrastructure that operated at 915 mHz, the mid-band of the RF frequency range (wireless systems today typically operate at microwave frequencies). Although no longer used, the access point for the old system was still operating, and was located right above the dock door where the RFID portal had been installed. In this case, it was easy to solve the problem by de-commissioning the access point, but the problem could have been much more serious. Avoid problems like this one by performing a full spectrum analysis of your site as part of the pre-implementation site survey. 12
Best Practice Guide - RFID Implementation, testing and deployment omni-id.com New Applications for RFID RFID technology continues to advance and new applications are evolving all the time. With the advent of successful on-metal RFID technology, industries that couldn’t use RFID in the past are now able to do so. Real World Lessons: Survey Marker Company A survey marker company was interested in using RFID tags to track its markers. The company made survey markers out of industrial steel, with a copper endcap. These markers Best Practice #8 were buried underground with a barcode reader on the end, and personnel had to dig With experimentation, RFID down to the end of the survey marker to scan the barcode. The barcode was subject to solutions can be found for many deterioration due to environmental exposure over time, so the company was interested in applications that were impossible using RFID tags. They hoped to protect the tags from exposure by placing them inside the in the past. survey marker, and to be able to read the survey marker without having to dig it up. The company worked with Omni-ID to test performance of their tags in the survey marker. Since the tags perform well on metal, the industrial steel pipe did not cause a problem. Yet inside the pipe with the copper endcap, the tag could not be read. The company suggested putting an aperture in the endcap, and sent samples to Omni-ID for testing. Even with the aperture, the signal was still not strong enough. The Omni-ID engineer suggested using plastic endcaps instead of metal. Testing showed that the tags performed well inside the pipe with a plastic endcap. This series of experimentation resulted in a successful solution for the survey marker company’s problem. The company is now in the process of application testing. Summary The real-world examples shared here are designed to help you understand and make decisions about some of the design factors that will affect your own RFID implementation. As our summary, we’ve included a quick checklist of the factors involved. 13
Best Practice Guide - RFID Implementation, testing and deployment omni-id.com RFID Deployment Checklist 1. Choose active or passive tags 2. Select the tags based on • Read range • Tag size • Eliminating interference 3. Plan for attaching tags to assets 4. Plan for commissioning tags 5. Create an application test plan Brought to you by Omni-Id This collection of real-world implementation stories is brought to you by the executives and engineers of Omni-ID, one of the world’s leading suppliers of passive UHF RFID tags. Omni- ID’s technology is based on research from QuinetiQ, an international defense and security technology company known for a number of breakthrough technology discoveries. Although Omni-ID was founded in 2007, the research behind its technology started in the 1990s, and its executive and engineering team has many years of combined experience in the RFID industry – some of which they have shared with you in this paper. Omni-ID was the first company to offer a product family of RFID tags that perform equally well on metal, non-metal, and liquid assets. The Omni-ID Prox, Flex, and Max tags provide a range of tag sizes with outstanding read-performance-to-size ratios. The OmniTether, Service Bureau, and On Demand provide additional options and services that were developed as a direct result of customer requirements and are available to make your implementation easier. As some of these stories have illustrated, Omni-ID works closely with customers to ensure a successful implementation and to solve new challenges and develop new applications. We hope you’ve found value in our Real World Lessons. When you’re ready to begin your implementation, contact us at Omni-ID. 14
Omni-ID is the leading supplier of passive, low-profile UHF RFID solutions. Through our patented technology, Omni-ID “cracked the code” to overcome the problems traditionally associated with RFID, enabling a broad range of new applications that improve accuracy and efficiency in asset tracking, supply chain management and work-in-process. Our family of versatile RFID tags works reliably in the harshest environments, including on, off, and near metal and liquids and excels in solving tracking and identification challenges with unprecedented accuracy. With offices in the USA, UK, Asia and India backed up by a purpose-built manufacturing facility in China, our mission is to drive the widespread adoption of RFID and wider IoT technologies as the optimal tracking and identification devices. Omni-ID’s global presense: USA Office: UK Office: Asia Office: India Office: 333 West Commercial Street The Enterprise Centre Omni-ID Technology Trading Omni-ID India Private Limited Suite 333–1500 Coxbridge Business Park (ShangHai) Co. LTD #211, 2nd Floor East Rochester Alton Road 1308 Room Unit B V-Times Square New York 14445 Farnham, Surrey Sunyoung Center 28 XuanHua Rd Plot no-3 Sector-15 CBD Belapur GU10 5EH United Kingdom ShangHai 205002 Navi Mumbai 400614 Tel: +1 585 299 5990 Tel: +44 (0) 1252 748 020 Tel: +86 21 5240 0359 Tel: +91 8655 657 969 Visit www.omni-id.com to learn more or email sales@omni-id.com for all product or technology inquiries and we will be pleased to get in touch. omni-id.com © 2020 Omni-ID. All rights reserved.
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